PayScale’s VIP Blog Roundup: This Daily Habit Will Change Your Career

How much of your workday do you spend treading water, doing the bare minimum, just getting by? It’s not necessarily because you’re lazy or even because you’re burned out. Modern working life means juggling multiple priorities and deadlines, all the time. It’s no wonder if we start to get into the habit of skimming the surface, instead of digging deep.

What’s the one habit that will change your life and career? Consciously choosing to work harder/smarter/more efficiently … for just one hour a day. Daskal explains:

Set an alarm on your watch or phone to go off at random times during the day. Every time the alarm goes off, challenge yourself to raise the bar. Stop, take a step back from whatever you were doing, and ask yourself how you can improve it.

If you’re working on a project, ask yourself how can you streamline the process.

If you’re having a conversation, try to go deeper.

If you’re working out, work out harder.

If you’re willing to devote an hour a day, the simple act of challenging yourself to go deeper to work harder will end up changing your life forever.

Try this exercise for a month, Daskal says, and you’ll be surprised at the benefits you discover. (But just in case you’re still not sold, here’s what you might experience.)

Do You Know What You're Worth?

“Does this sound familiar? You’re in a demo. You’re moving through a meticulously personalized presentation. You’ve prepared for any scenario,” writes Prater. “And then they hit you with that question. The one you never saw coming. The one you have no idea how to answer.”

Even if you’re not in sales, you’ve probably run into this situation before. (Cough-job interview-cough.) Prater’s techniques for powering through will help you get through it the next time, without losing the sale — even when the product is you, and the prospect is a hiring manager.

Marc Miller, founder of Career Pivot, is considering a move abroad … but he’s not planning to leave his business behind. If you’re an entrepreneur or an employee who’s thinking of taking your particular show on the road, his decision-making process will be interesting to you. These are some of the factors to consider, if you want to work abroad as a freelancer or business owner.

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